Teacher residents train as part of a cohort — a peer group that provides ongoing support and collaborative learning throughout the residency year and beyond. At the beginning of the school year, groups of teacher residents are placed in high-need, high-functioning, urban public schools for their apprenticeship experience. Teacher residents also complete their coursework as a cohort.

Before the school year begins, teacher residents are matched with an experienced mentor teacher who specializes in mentoring teacher residents based on their content area and grade level. Teacher residents start the school year in the classroom with their mentor teacher before students arrive, then co-teach four days per week throughout the year taking on increasing levels of responsibility. Performance-based assessments are conducted throughout the year, and teacher residents receive formal and informal feedback from their mentor teachers, residency program staff, principals, and other support staff.

In addition to their hands-on work in the classroom, teacher residents engage in coursework designed to inform and enrich the apprenticeship experience and leads to a licensure and/or bachelor’s or master’s degree. This deep blend of theory and practice makes the teacher residency model a unique route into teaching, helping participants draw meaningful connections between their daily classroom work and the latest in education theory and research.

Teacher residents complete this coursework and participate in seminar, typically one evening and one full day per week. In the spring, teacher residents begin interviewing for full-time positions in a hiring school in the district. Teacher residents graduate from the program after the end of the school year and go on to become a teacher of record at a hiring school. Throughout the first year of teaching, teacher residents receive ongoing induction support from content and instructional coaches.